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“Fuck you,” I growled. “My decision was mine. Sal understood it. He accepted it.”

“You don’t get to say his name,” she hissed. “You didn’t know him. You were just some tramp he got pregnant and then walked away.”

“I loved him! And he loved me!” I hissed.

It still hurt. Even apart, we never stopped loving each other.

“Why do you think he didn’t tell any of you about Henry until he was two? Or that we were married?”

There was a certain amount of satisfaction in the subtle widening of her eyes. My confession had come as a shock.

“It wasn’t just my family we hid from. Sal hid us both from you too! Maybe ask yourself why he didn’t want you in his son’s life.”

I stood and took a step away before I stopped. Illyria glared at me. But she held her tongue, and I knew it was killing her.

“Sal talked about you. About your relationship. You were close, and he still didn’t tell you about Henry until I gave himpermission. He asked me if he could tell you all about our son. I said yes because I wanted Henry to have a family. Aunts and uncles who would love him, protect him. Something I couldn’t give him.”

I looked back at Henry. He had no idea who I was, or that I was even there. Watching him, loving him.

“I wanted to see him one last time. I am leaving New York. I won’t be back. You may have had the power to protect your son, Illyria. I didn’t. But I knew Sal would. He could have told you about me. Who I was. Who my family was. But even in his death, he kept me and Henry safe. I was the one who suggested he make you Henry’s legal guardian in the event something happened to him. That was how I protected my son. Maybe ask yourself how Sal would react to the way you just spoke to his wife and the mother of his child.”

With those parting words, I walked away from Illyria Valentinetti and Maxim Fedorov.

And my son.

Chapter Five

Duncan

“Christ, Sal will lose his mind when he sees this shit.”

Mac was right. As we packed up Nolan Kelley’s office, we went through everything. Leaving anything Callum might need to continue on in his place.

Truth be told, Callum should have been here with us. But without knowing how much Callum knew about Maddie and her son, we couldn’t take that chance.

Once we found Kelley and took care of him, Sal would have to contact Maxim. Tell him everything and hope it didn’t start a war.

“He doesn’t need to see all of it.”

Mac’s hands paused over the top of the box he was packing. “You keeping shit from the boss?”

“No, just not telling him everything right away.”

“Think that’s wise?” he asked.

I didn’t answer. I was taking a chance by not keeping Sal in the loop. With Tyran gone, that meant I would take his place. I was the closest thing to a brother Sal had inside the organization and unlike Tyran, I had his back.

Does having his back meaning keeping shit from him?

“What the fuck is this?” Mac asked, his eyes boring into a piece of paper in his hands. Moving in behind him, I looked over his shoulder.

“Jesus Christ! If Sal sees this, he’s liable to burn the whole fuckin’ world down.”

A knock on the door had us both turning. “Hide this shit,” I said, shoving the piece of paper toward Mac.

Walking over to the door, I opened it a crack and sighed.

“What are you doing here?”